Wow.

[bladespark]

Okay, the "skinny is beautiful" media thing has officially jumped the shark. Gone beyond the pale. Passed the point of no return. Because apparently this woman is supposed to disgust you. Go, clicky, look. Then come back and read. (Er, clicky leads to gal clad only in strategically placed rose petals, may not be SFW in some workplaces.)

I am more or less straight, when Aidan's not doing the talking. (Probably a Kinsey 1, and a 2-3 when Aidan and/or Yin are around.) But that first girl especially is hot. Holy CRAP is she hot. She's supposed to be disgustingly overweight? What? She is drool-worthy even for people who do not have a BWW fetish. She has hips! She is gorgeous!

Media people have lost touch with reality. They spend so much time in their little marketing world, surrounded by yes men and crazy people who think a size 6 is overweight, that they no longer have any idea what real people like. (Heavens! A size six! I've been one, it was during my stick period, when I was too stressed to eat, and when I did eat I was too broke to have anything other than Ramen. I was too thin!)

Here's a clue, media people. Real people like real people. People who look like themselves. People who are beautiful in many ways, but who do not need to be airbrushed to be so! People who are thin and fat and in between, who are short and tall and dark and blonde and pierced and not, and everything. We may be momentarily attracted to a perfectly symmetrical face on a magazine cover, but it does not make any real impact on our minds. You want to capture our attention, well... you need something real. And that's the problem, isn't it? You don't know what real is. You try to manufacture reality, you try to be hip and cool and down with us homies, and you fail utterly, because you are not real.

Screw the ad campaign and the diet youghurt, I will take that lady with the rose petals right there. Mrow! (Hush, Aidan.) She looks pretty real to me. And if my not eating the diet yougurt means I look like her, I am not going to mind one bit! (Although I won't, I put my fat on in funny places...)

Comments

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

WTF? Ok, what is wrong with straight men? Gods, I'm gay and even I say "wow." That women in the rose petals is hot. Seriously, aren't women SUPPOSED to be curvy and jiggly and sexy?

This reminds me of an MTV skit where there were doing music videos of "full figured" (which the implication was "fat") women. And they used... Shakira. SHAKIRA! They considered Shakira to be fat!

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

No, you're confusing "what society tells you that straight men should be attracted to" and "what straight men find attractive". As you will see in a previous comment, the evidence shows that straight men still find curves attractive in reality.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Ok, what is wrong with the media? Surely it would be more sensible to promote and use models that men actually find hot and sexy rather than try a cultural shift to stick thin anorexic waifs and try to tell men "this should be considered sexy?"

Is it a need to make sexy hard? Or unattainable? Exclusive?

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

Someone decided it was the in thing. Like they've done every few decades/centuries for the last two thousand years. Probably three thousand+, but we sort of get short on records at that point and the greeks were sort of less interested to start with. >.>

As far as I can tell, it came about through the 'supermodels' - a stick figure won't show how bad the dress is, 'cuz it doesn't have curves to flatter or ruin. So the Kate Moss's of the world came to the forefront, and everyone else followed suit.

That's my theory anyway.

[thetommydodd.livejournal.com]

I have a theory too. Without wishing to make too broad and sweeping generalisation, what does their choice of " androgynous stick insect" as the feminine ideal tell us about the preferences and lifestyle choices of the men working in the fashion industry?

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

The traditional response is that the drive originates from the fashion industry, which noticed that clothing hangs better on thinner models. Hence, they encouraged their models to be thinner to show off the clothes better, and the media assumed that the models therefore represented the acme of physical attractiveness (afterall, they were being paid for their looks). Repeat for a couple of decades, and you get the present situation.

[eisenhart.livejournal.com]

See previous comment, RE: I'd Hit It.

<< Straight man.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

there is sanity among my heterosexual brethren!

[eisenhart.livejournal.com]

...Sanity? Where?!

OMFG

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

HOW IS SHAKIRA FAT!!!???!! *goes to shoot self* if she is fat, then i must be too. jeebus... *145 and skinny as reed* that is just EFFED UP!

Re: OMFG

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Exactly I was stunned. Good gods, is she fatr because I can't see protruding ribs?

Re: OMFG

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

... Shakira is/was one of the hottest women in the music industry, she does not need to lose weight there wasn't any to start with! ;_;

Re: OMFG

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

Completely agreed. Her curves are lovely. ...And she's a short cute blonde. >.>

Re: OMFG

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

...must be, because I can't think of anything else that doesn't make her relatively skinny!
I mean, wow. it is just hard to beleive that this crap is out there....

I'm a huge fan for looking good and being healthy, but that never means you don't have the right to look how you want and not exercise, and it certainly NEVER means that one needs to fit onto size Zero pants without being made fun of as too fat- I mean I can't fit in them either!